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As someone who was around when the TCG very first came out, before it started spreading to the younger kids, I can share an insight that most people don't know: It's because Charizard was one of the few holographic Pokemon pictured in the instruction booklet. Most people would buy a starter deck, thumb through the how-to-play manual, see a Pokemon with 120 HP that does 100 damage, and immediately understand that it was a hell of a lot stronger than anything in their starter deck. It left a very strong first impression on a lot of people, coupled with a third of them already having a natural affiliation with Charizard because they had it as their starter in the games. It almost immediately became sought-after.
